My furry little friends (Eleanor & Frankie) said "Meow!!!"

Cat Fight?

Over this crap?

Naaa, but Obama is now requesting that the debt ceiling be raised, yet again. Seems like Captain "raising the debt ceiling is a failure of leadership" needs another $1.2 Trillion. Pronto.

So how about it gang, you all got any spare cash laying around? Maybe some extra gift cards you can send in to DC?

Say, I wonder...will the fact that Obama has to raise the ceiling, just a few short months after the big fight last summer effect the country's credit rating?

President "Downgrade" coming at us hard BEFORE new years.

Yep, 2012 is gonna be a doozy of a year.

Say, I wonder...will the fact that Obama has to raise the ceiling, just a few short months after the big fight last summer effect the country's credit rating?

Better question...will the Tea Partiers stomp their feet and clench their fists and tell everyone how they won't pay again? After all that worked so well this summer.

(see also: CAUSED THE DOWNGRADE)

I sure hope so Noid.

Or we could just keep raising it till the cows come home.

That probably won't effect our credit much, right? Heck no - we are already have debt over over 100% of our GDP. They raised it on 1/31/11, but already need to raise it more.

Seems like we should hae the same credit rating as Greece at this point.

Then again, since China is now in a bad way, who cares about credit anyway?

Got ink?

Noid - Our country is BROKE. How do you propose we get the money to raise the debt ceiling? Are you of the mindset that borrowing trillions of dollars is actually good for this country?

Are you of the mindset that borrowing trillions of dollars is actually good for this country?

Why not?

It worked out so well for 'W' now didn't it?

I crack up at the fiscal hawks who only crawl out from under their rocks when there's a Democrat occupying the Oval Office!

At least appear to have some sense of consistency will ya?

Take the low road Feisty. I thought Obama was above all that... He was "special." Now you stoop to comparing him to W. You must not think very much of Obama since that's what you are doing.

If that's the case Feisty, what's so special about Obama? He follows W's path and you find a way to say that hawks are crawling out from under the rocks... how about you crawling out from under yours.. defending a man that is no better than those before him... and you call him super guy. Now THAT's the joke! Talk about lack of consistency.

Go ahead Fiesty... throw your best insult at me. I would expect nothing less from you. You completely miss the point that Obama is a terrible president, but yet you choose to support him... why? because you are a democrat. Nobody ever said you were smart. Defending a president that does the wrong thing all the time by comparing him to a president that did the wrong thing too... How do you look at yourself in the mirror? You are fooling yourself into the lie... sucks to be you.

Both sides need to come together and create a budget that will shrink the deficit over time. It won't be done overnight but at least going in a positive direction will A: eliminate the need to continue to raise the debt ceiling and B: improve the country's now not-so-pristine credit rating. Unfortunately, we are so far into debt and simply cutting spending will not get the job done and the majority of Americans don't want to make any cuts to the three areas we spend the most on (Medicare, Social Security and Defense).

Seems tax increases are the fiscally responsible alternative but the "fiscally responsible" party refuses to do so and keeps crying about the "job creators" and "punishing success." Keep the capital gains tax where it is (Clinton lowered it, remember?) to keep investing as an option to those who can but let all the tax cuts expire (yes, the payroll tax cut as well as the Bush era income tax cuts) since these do not lead to job creation or economic expansion and simply put us further into the red. I agree that Obama has done little as a leader to make things happen but the Tea Party faction of the GOP has done everything in their power to obstruct any positive effort even when the majority of Americans favor raising taxes on the wealthiest. Truth be told, they should be raised on everybody and as the deficit gap begins to close, at that time we can address economic expansion. Unfortunately, they can't be solved simultaneously.

Noid - Our country is BROKE. How do you propose we get the money to raise the debt ceiling? Are you of the mindset that borrowing trillions of dollars is actually good for this country?

Nope...merely pointing out the Tea Party's role in the downgrade...though, of course, they will deny they had anything to do with it. We're talking about a faction within government that was perfectly content to default.

As an example, suppose my wife and I have a mortgage payment due but we're not sure how we're going to pay it. From the bank's perspective, they want the payment made and it doesn't necessarily matter how we do it. Now, it's one thing for my wife and I to sit at the dinner table and have a discussion about how we're going to make the payment but how is the bank going to react if my wife and I walk in and have the same discussion? How is the bank supposed to react when my wife says that she is content to not make the payment and default on the mortgage?

Applied to the present situation, that is what the Tea Partiers did...they stood in Congress and proudly stated that they were fine with not raising the debt ceiling and defaulting.

Don't take my word for it...just listen to what S&P said when they announced the downgrade...

The political brinksmanship of recent months highlights what we see as America's governance and policymaking becoming less stable, less effective, and less predictable than what we previously believed. The statutory debt ceiling and the threat of default have become political bargaining chips in
the debate over fiscal policy. Despite this year's wide-ranging debate, in our view, the differences between political parties have proven to be extraordinarily difficult to bridge, and, as we see it, the resulting agreement fell well short of the comprehensive fiscal consolidation program that some proponents had envisaged until quite recently.

www.standardandpoors.com/ratings/articles/en/us/?assetID=1245316529563

Go ahead Fiesty... throw your best insult at me.

NO WAAAY!

Too much fun watching you play the victim!

How do you look at yourself in the mirror?

With both eyes open - how about you BB?

Amazing how easy it is for you to blame 50 people in our government Noid. There's 50 members of the Tea Party in our government.... What about the other 450? How short sighted are you Noid? I guess you wouldn't blame the democrats... heaven forbid.. you won't blame Obama... that's a sin... you can't blame Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid.. for the two years they had free reign... never! Nope... blame the Tea Party. The only group of people that is crying for sanity in Washington... the only group of people that sees the government as OVERSPENDERS!!! Don't try to fix the problem..... just blame the Tea Party... it's way too easy to do that...

Who's the victim Feisty? Actually you are... you are a victim of Obama delusionalism. He hyptonized you into thinking he could walk on water, leap tall buildings in a single bound, change the course of mighty rivers. Doesn't make me a victim because I saw past all the lying bluster... I actually feel quite sorry for all the Obama supporting liberals on this board. I hate seeing people being taken advantaged of by a psychipathic liar.

I crack up at the fiscal hawks who only crawl out from under their rocks when there's a Democrat occupying the Oval Office!

At least appear to have some sense of consistency will ya?

Bush had revenue in 2007 of $2.568 trillion with spending of $2.728 trillion for a deficit of $160.7 billion.

Obama had revenue in 2011 of $2.173 trillion with spending of $3.818 trillion for a deficit of $1.645 trillion – 10 TIMES Bush’s deficit!

The recession? The recession that began in December 2007, peaked in September 2008 and officially ended in June 2009?

Bush had a deficit of $458.6 billion in 2008 (TARP).

So even in those terms, of correcting the recession, Obama's spending is still over 3 TIMES Bush's defecit!

So how do you explain consistency?

Feisty putting on 10 lbs. over the holidays is the same as Feisty packing on a hundred lbs., huh?

If those two situations "appear" to be the same .... how big an old girl are you?

Or are you 10 times dumber than the average Yogi bear?

Yea Noids .... your credit scores on based on dinner sqabbles with Mrs. Noids.

Great point.

Ryan, It does appear that we have a spending problem, isn't it time that the old school politicians quit thinking that deficits don't matter?

I have no problem in seeing the obama (bush) tax cuts expire accross the board, but until the populace puts their collective foot down to curb runaway spending, what good is any increase in revenue going to do other than kick the can once again down the road?

Fiesty,

Brian plays the victim because he feels he has been cheated in life. He's a bitter, little melon who is always whining about one thing or another. He is utterly incapable of seeing any side of an issue except from his own point of view. Anna Molly and David pointed this out to him not long ago, noting that he doesn't see the forest for the trees.

We have cut spending but have not increased the revenues. Our revenues come primarily from taxes. When people are not working they aren't paying much in taxes. Instead of cut cut and cut we should be creating jobs, jobs and jobs. The cuts were supposed to create huge numbers of jobs but haven't.

The way to fix the problem is to continue to cut spending and find ways to cut more but that is not the only way we must also increase income. To do that is to tax the 1%. Once we have full employment again we can look at ways to reduce taxatiion on those who are making all the money.

Taxation alone or spending cuts along are not the solution. We need both in order to sensibly cut the deficit. The deficit was largely brought on by wars that were off budget soaking up money. While Haliburton benefitted the rest of us didn't. In past wars the government sold war bonds to Americans to help pay for it. This time around it was in the shadows , out of sight out of mind until it turned around and bit us in the ass. Now we suffer. We cut revenues but spent more on wars. We borrowed money which must be paid back with interest to COMMUNIST China instead of Americans. If we don't wake up we will look more like Somalia than any thing we could imagine that would be just the opposite.

Just an aside: Isn't 'god awful' an oxymoron? At least to the religious? Never got that one.

Just an aside: Isn't 'god awful' an oxymoron? At least to the religious? Never got that one.

From Dictionary.com...

aw·ful / [aw-fuhl]

3. solemnly impressive; inspiring awe: the awful majesty of alpine peaks

Da Noid, Thanks! That of course makes sense. But who ever uses it or even internalizes it that way?

If something is described as 'awful' we don't think 'full of awe'. You've made some English teacher very proud!

run-like-hell - Think of the jobs that presidential campaigns generate.

A wise man once said, "If you can't be good be interesting."

Applied to Newt...he's obviously not a good candidate but he's definitely interesting.

Yeah, 'interesting' is accurate. Just not the word I would choose.

That's why he can't afford air time. The 'baggage fees' are killing him. Probably a lot of checks being sent out to make sure a lot of people 'never met him before'. You ever tried to keep the dead from rising? It ain't easy or cheap!

Talk about what "rises to the top" with someone who cleans septic tanks, you'll get a real understanding of the current crop of GOP contenders.

Quite an interesting viewpoint. Just a mere 3 years ago we were entertaining a candidate for president that had ZERO executive experience, ZERO legislative experience, ZERO leadership experience, ZERO experience in general and he ended up as president. Now we are facing a complete decline in our way of life, huge government intruding into just about every aspect of the way we live... and you are complaining about a person with greater leadership abilities and much more experience than our current president will dream about. Amazing how political rantings work... I hate the other guy because he's not my guy.

So, Brianb, do the years at a State Senator not count as experience? Teaching experience not count? While you may disregard "community organizing" as not worthy to be considered experience, that ability is equally as important as being a Governor or running a company. How much "executive experience" does Newt Gingrich have or are you counting his experience at running cons and scams for faux-awards? Romney was a mediocre Governor, and his "executive experience" with Bain involved leveraging profitable companies and bankrupting them. While we're on that topic, what good did all that "executive experience" of Bush 43's do us and Cheney's? Look at the pile of unfunded debt garbage they left on our doorsteps.

Obama/Biden 2012!

Actually jody being a teacher or state senator do not. Obama would have been better off if he had remained a US senator for another 6 years. His on the job training as POTUS did the US no favors.

LOL jody, still trying to hang crap on bush2, where was the left? Seems that they had no problem with deficit spending as well, or did you forget this?

errr...

leveraging profitable companies and bankrupting them.

Don't you mean...

Buying poorly run, profitable/unprofitable companies and then selling off the segments that are profitable and getting rid of the dead wood?

Oh, now the Vice President of Americans for Prosperity has "written" a book and I'm sure it gives an "unbiased" opinion of Barack Obama. Kind of like Fox News giving balanced reporting, theres Truth and the rest of the story.

Talk ... Phil Kerpen is a dyed in the wool right wing Republican ... oh Glenn Beck says it is a good read ... puhleaze!

Just as I predicted. Thanks dirp and ideology. My percentage of correctness of what you will do escalates every day.

Most intelligent thing you've said all year. I agree 100%.